Castlevania: Lords of Shadow for PS3: Getting to Know Gabriel

When designing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, I often looked back at the original Castlevania for inspiration. I would remember the feelings I had as I traversed the dark, gloomy landscape and recall the wonderful music that would create an atmosphere quite unlike any other game of the time.

For me, Castlevania was always about lone warrior battling supernatural creatures with a whip. This was the core idea that when you strip away all the layers, is what remains true for the series even now. Of course, back then, games were far simpler and story lines, characters, and the rest were often secondary to the all-important gameplay.

Over the years, games have become more sophisticated and players have wanted deeper experiences and more far-reaching gameplay mechanics. Expectations for memorable characters and realistic environments often mean it’s much more difficult to find the core of a game and truly understand where something is coming from.

We decided early on that we would boil down that core idea and add layers on top but this time, we would add new layers along with some of the old. We knew we wanted Castlevania: Lords of Shadow to be about the Belmonts. We knew the main hero had to have a whip and not just any whip but a chain whip, just like the Belmonts of old. We knew series staples like daggers and holy water had to be in, too.

We knew that we had to have brooding and dark environments. Underground caves, dank swamps, sewers, catacombs and not just be set in a castle. Just like the old games! We knew we would need a forbidding castle with clock towers, dining halls, libraries and the like to explore but we also wanted to give players cunning puzzles and items to find to make exploring much more interesting.

We wanted old characters to be in our universe, but somehow different. Somehow not what you would expect, but enough for you to see and feel the character anew. So when people say to me, this game doesn’t look like Castlevania… I simply reply, you need to look harder and deeper, because inside this game is the Castlevania you know and love. And yet it is new, reborn. You just have to look with better eyes!

Gabriel Belmont is a lone warrior battling supernatural creatures with a whip. He is trying to bring back his dead wife to the world of the living. We have candles for you to whip, we have vampires, bats, zombies, werewolves, wargs. In fact, over 45 different enemies populate the game.

We have secondary weapons such as daggers and holy water. We have characters who some of you will recognize. We have a wonderful score that includes memorable Castlevania themes here and there that will give fans chills. But most of all, we have an open invitation to those of you who have never sampled the delights of Castlevania before.

The door is open and we want to welcome you in. Its going to be 20 hours of challenges, but you will be rewarded handsomely with a story that will deliver an epic re-imagining of the series for everyone to enjoy, not just fans.

Won’t you come in? The fire is raging and the master and his servants are home, waiting to give you a welcome you won’t soon forget!

I’m incredibly excited for this game. I think this will succeed where other 3D Castlevania’s have failed specifically because it was designed and created by the heads at Konami. The fellows at MercurySteam have a completely new vision (along with the legendary Hideo Kojima) and they, while keeping familiar elements of the franchise, just made a new game.

I still don’t know what I’m going to get on the 5th of October, this or Enslaved. Just played the demo and was very impressed. Hope we can get one for this game too but unless the reviews are miserable, I’m getting this game no matter what. Just maybe not as soon as I want it.

I think it’s unfair to call it a God of War rip. Seeing as Lament of Innocence came out 2 years before God of War, and has a very similar control scheme. If anything, God of War is ripping the control scheme off of dozens of games that came before it. This game will be AWESOME

I hope this “revamp” doesnt ruin the series, as for the “God of War rip” Castlevania has been going since the late 80’s keeping with the trend of genre its well known for is hardly a rip off of a game that was created in 2005, get your facts straight ya?

Although I don’t take this negatively, this is a semi-GOW ripoff. Even though castlevania has been around since before I can remember do me a favor. Look at that top picture and tell me that isn’t a less badass looking kratos swinging around a bigass dude with a chain with some sort of weapon on the end.

Nah, I’m just screwing with you. Yes, you guys are pretty much lifting the God of War formula, but if EA can do it (Dante’s Inferno) without too much flak, the guys who exclusively brought us MGS4 are fine by me.

Sure, you can argue that God of War was simply a blending of previously created game elements, but the specific blend/combination, cinematic/thematic/graphical style and quality-level of execution are undeniablly GoW. Such outstanding quality is precisely what inspires others to… “create homages.” Honestly, I think if they actually gave the PS3 an exclusive Kratos-skin, they’d only be helping their case; instead of plagiarism, it’s just a work-cited.

I put my pre-order as soon as I saw the first trailers. The game looks great. As a note, to all the people calling this game (among others) as “GoW rip-offs”, God of War was not an original idea, it was a refinement on a genre (3D action) that was poor utilized.
There really aren’t many new game ideas anymore, so as long as the game is good, who cares if they took inspiration from other games.

Used to play the originals as a kid, but moved to the Legacy of Kain & Soul Reaver series’ for my vamp fix. I’ve gotta say that this look, design, and description of gameplay is calling to me. If the gameplay is similar to Darksiders, I may just have to get this sooner than later. I’m hoping for a demo to get a taste. Either way, I will be buying this at some point.

This game will rock Some of the MGS team has worked on this too. I can’t wait and will be first in line to pick up my copy. been waiting a long time for a NEW Castlevaina game.
(GOW rip off some of you people need to grow up):)

OMG thank you guys, you guys made my Fall. Got to thank Jeff, Sid, and Rey for letting you guys post. This has been my most requested blog post. Thank you thank you thank you! Cannot wait any longer for this magnificent game! Played it at E3 2010 and definitely was my favorite in the show room

Castlevania is by far one of my favourite series of all time. I’ve played every single one and while the 3D entries aren’t as excellent as the 2D masterpieces, this one really looks like it might be the one to change that.

Hmmm funny how he mentions everything Castlevania which i truly love and can’t wait to break the game deep inside to find

But if this game doesn’t follow castlevania’s core gameplay mechanic how can it be castlevania…

I know ish gotta change because of the transfer to 3d but combo systems and wall scaling and jumping similar to prince of persia will not do it

I won’t judge a game it’s cover but i am skeptic until i experience gameplay

GoW made not have been first but it was first to make it worse and since then it seems like fantasy games have taken a turn for the worst… It’s not hard to be different in action adventure despite what any of you say
*sigh* crossed fingers hope it’s successful … I love Castlevania and Can I have another Soma based game please lol

I’m surprised people aren’t tired of calling this a GoW clone by now. C’mon. Sure, it’s definitely is using the same sort of control scheme but who the hell cares? GoW was awesome, this looks awesome. GoW was really fun to play, so I know this is gonna really fun to play. I actually like the fact that it looks a lot like GoW. I can’t wait to play this.

first of all, let me start by saying that the first to comments should be eliminated without hesitation! @#1~ grow up >> @#2~wrong try again. now that I said that…WOW WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT THIS AMAZING CASTLEVANIA GAME!!! finally another 3D future classic. yes, I said that. I am an old school fan of all the CV games created. They are the best series of games ever created in my opinion. It’s out 2 days after my bday, I may just have to buy a PS3 afterall. My PSP would not be touched for a long time, months after GoW~GoS is delivered to my house. Very Niiice work Dave Cox and team!!

Being a massive Castlevania fan, I had to pre-order the Collector’s Edition for this game…cannot wait to play this on October 5th! The game is looking outstanding and I’m hearing that, even though reviews can’t be released yet, the game is scoring over 90%!

Dear Mr. Cox, let me just say THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ALL THE HARD WORK that it must have been to make a game like this turn into reality. Despite all the gow rip-iff (who obviously come from very ignorant ppl) negative comments, I pre-ordered the special edition and paid it in full even thought the retailer said even a $5 deposit would do. I said no, cause if I forget my wallet that day, I’ll be really damn pissed :) This is my most anticipated game. The ppl who say this is a gow rip-off are completely ignorant. It’s the same ppl who can’t tell the difference between grunge/alternative music and heavy metal (trust me they’re out there). It’s liek calling all shooters a rip-off of each. You do the exact same thing and they’re always mapped to the same buttons: L1 to zoom, R1 to shoot, grenade on l2 or r2, etc, blah blah blah. Should we accuse …let’s see guerrilla games for ripping off infinity ward? God that would be so stupid……so the same thing happens with melee action game, you have to assign an attack to a certain button. Whether it’s the same button that some other game used, who gives a damn?

I personally think this game will put god of war to shame and is the only game that I have been impatient to get my hands on since the times of soul reaver 2. Speaking of soul reaver games, you know, judging from the TGS 2010 trailer I sense that the story will be some cheesy cliche’ affair. I highly recommend you gusy get together with the only genius in the gaming industry (drum roll please) Amy Hennig. If games like this had a the powerful pen of Miss amy behind their story, then they would be masterpieces that stay forever with you. Even though she seems to be enjoying her time with naughty dog, I know that deep within she longs to write a story like that of raziel and kain’s. I would prefer her to work with studios like you then studios that are eager to jump on the ever-so-common SHOOTER bandwagon, which is unfortunately what naughty dog is doing. Please collaborate with her in the future. PLEASE! That would me 2nd wish since crystal dynamics doesn’t seem to be wanting to join forces back with her.

Actually… I remember David Cox saying that they are TAKING THINGS back… so technically whatever game you compare it to THEY have been ripping off Castlevania. This game looks awesome and it sure is a Day 1 buy for me and I am not a Castlevania fan :)